Most men have their first tryst with backache between the ages of 30 and 45, about the same time they start getting grey hair. According to medical studies, at least 70 percent of men will have back aches at some point in their lives. Of those, 14 percent will have severe pain that lasts for at least two weeks, and up to 7 per cent will have chronic pain that can last for more than six months.
Muscle strain has been identified as the most common cause of back pain in several medical studies. As men get older, they get less and less exercise. The amount of physical activity reduces to a good extent. Consequently, the muscles in the abdomen and back that support the spine deteriorate and get out of shape. What happens after this is that you discover that you are unable to perform tasks with ease (as you used to do previously) and experience pain in the abdomen area. Improper posture is also one of the major reasons for back ache.
Often back pain can be easily treated without surgery or drugs. But, if during the course of time, the pain intensifies and spreads to other parts of the body, it means things have are getting out of hand and it’s definitely time to consult a specialist.
Here are some tips for preventing and treating back pain:
Early Morning Stretch
You can even start off your day by stretching while you still lie in your bed after waking up. Remember that there has been very little movement in your body for the last eight hours or so (time when you were asleep). It wouldn’t be a good idea to jump out of the bed the moment you open your eyes and kick-start the workout abruptly. This would be asking for a sore back.
Walking Away from Back Ache
Walking conditions your entire body and is therefore good for the back as well. It strengthens the postural muscles of the buttocks, legs, back and abdomen. A brisk stroll may also help your body release ‘endorphins’, hormones that subdue pain. Swimming, bicycling and running are also advisable.
Taking that Much-needed Break
If your job requires you to sit at your desk for an extended time or if you’re travelling long-distance by a plane, train or a car, change position often and give your back a break it so deserves. Stand up and walk around every hour or so.
Kneel, Don’t Bend
Avoid bending over at the waist to pick up an object. This can create tension in the back and increases your risk of injury. Prefer kneeling down. Use long-handled tools and kneel on a cushion or knee pad to garden, vacuum or do other “low-level” activities.
A Good Posture
Maintaining good posture is one of the best ways to prevent back pain. Try this for improving your posture. Stand against a wall or sit in a dining room chair, making sure that your shoulders and buttocks touch the wall or your chair. Slip your arm into the space between your lower back and the wall or chair. If there is a point where your hand isn’t touching both your back and the wall or chair, tilt your hips so that the extra space is eliminated. Hold that position for a count of 20 while looking in the mirror to see what your posture looks like. Try to maintain posture for the rest of the day. Do this exercise once a day for three weeks to ensure good posture becomes a habit.
Mattress Matters
The mattress you sleep on should provide proper support, be level and not slump. Medium-firm mattress can provide better back support.
Chill-up Your Back
Applying ice to the back can help reduce pain and swelling. Wrap ice cubes in a pillowcase or a towel (never apply ice directly to the skin) and put it on the sore spot for 10 minutes each hour until the pain subsides.
Warming-it-up
Once the chill does it job (relieves swelling) – which it usually does within 48 hours, you can start using heat. Heat increases blood flow to the affected area, relaxes tissues and can improve your mobility. You can either apply a warm washcloth to the back for 5 to10 minutes every hour, or bathe/take shower with warm water.
Over-the-Counter-Drugs
Taking 1-2 aspirin or ibuprofen tablets every four to six hours can temporarily relieve pain and reduce swelling. But this is a makeshift treatment and not a proper therapy to treat backache in the long run. Besides, these drugs have their own side-effects as well. Do not develop a dependence on them and never exceed manufacturer’s prescribed dosage.
Medical Advice
Do not hesitate from seeking medical advice if things start to worsen. Do not start playing the doctor yourself or let others around you do the same.
Saturday, April 16, 2011
Monday, March 28, 2011
52 Must Read Quotes from Legendary Investor – Warren Buffett
Warren Buffett is without question the most successful investor of our time (and possibly of all time). His savvy deal making abilities coupled with his creative and cheerful personality allowed him to achieve success like no other.
1. A public-opinion poll is no substitute for thought.
2. Chains of habit are too light to be felt until they are too heavy to be broken.
3. I always knew I was going to be rich. I don’t think I ever doubted it for a minute.
4. I am quite serious when I say that I do not believe there are, on the whole earth besides, so many intensified bores as in these United States. No man can form an adequate idea of the real meaning of the word, without coming here.
5. I buy expensive suits. They just look cheap on me.
6. I don’t have a problem with guilt about money. The way I see it is that my money represents an enormous number of claim checks on society. It’s like I have these little pieces of paper that I can turn into consumption. If I wanted to, I could hire 10,000 people to do nothing but paint my picture every day for the rest of my life. And the GNP would go up. But the utility of the product would be zilch, and I would be keeping those 10,000 people from doing AIDS research, or teaching, or nursing. I don’t do that though. I don’t use very many of those claim checks. There’s nothing material I want very much. And I’m going to give virtually all of those claim checks to charity when my wife and I die.
7. I don’t look to jump over 7-foot bars: I look around for 1-foot bars that I can step over.
8. I never attempt to make money on the stock market. I buy on the assumption that they could close the market the next day and not reopen it for five years.
9. If a business does well, the stock eventually follows.
10. If past history was all there was to the game, the richest people would be librarians.
11. If you’re in the luckiest 1 per cent of humanity, you owe it to the rest of humanity to think about the other 99 per cent.
12. In the business world, the rear view mirror is always clearer than the windshield.
13. Investors making purchases in an overheated market need to recognize that it may often take an extended period for the value of even an outstanding company to catch up with the price they paid.
14. It takes 20 years to build a reputation and five minutes to ruin it. If you think about that, you’ll do things differently.
15. It’s better to hang out with people better than you. Pick out associates whose behavior is better than yours and you’ll drift in that direction.
16. It’s far better to buy a wonderful company at a fair price than a fair company at a wonderful price.
17. I’ve reluctantly discarded the notion of my continuing to manage the portfolio after my death – abandoning my hope to give new meaning to the term ‘thinking outside the box.’
18. Let blockheads read what blockheads wrote.
19. Look at market fluctuations as your friend rather than your enemy; profit from folly rather than participate in it.
20. Long ago, Sir Isaac Newton gave us three laws of motion, which were the work of genius. But Sir Isaac’s talents didn’t extend to investing: He lost a bundle in the South Sea Bubble, explaining later, ‘I can calculate the movement of the stars, but not the madness of men.’ If he had not been traumatized by this loss, Sir Isaac might well have gone on to discover the Fourth Law of Motion: For investors as a whole, returns decrease as motion increases.
21. Most people get interested in stocks when everyone else is. The time to get interested is when no one else is. You can’t buy what is popular and do well.
22. Never count on making a good sale. Have the purchase price be so attractive that even a mediocre sale gives good results.
23. Of the billionaires I have known, money just brings out the basic traits in them. If they were jerks before they had money, they are simply jerks with a billion dollars.
24. Only buy something that you’d be perfectly happy to hold if the market shut down for 10 years.
25. Only when the tide goes out do you discover who’s been swimming naked.
26. Our favorite holding period is forever.
27. Price is what you pay. Value is what you get.
28. Risk comes from not knowing what you’re doing.
29. Risk is a part of God’s game, alike for men and nations.
30. Rule No.1: Never lose money. Rule No.2: Never forget rule No.1.
31. Wall Street is the only place that people ride to work in a Rolls Royce to get advice from those who take the subway.
32. The business schools reward difficult complex behavior more than simple behavior, but simple behavior is more effective.
33. The investor of today does not profit from yesterday’s growth.
34. The line separating investment and speculation, which is never bright and clear, becomes blurred still further when most market participants have recently enjoyed triumphs. Nothing sedates rationality like large doses of effortless money. After a heady experience of that kind, normally sensible people drift into behavior akin to that of Cinderella at the ball. They know that overstaying the festivities — that is, continuing to speculate in companies that have gigantic valuations relative to the cash they are likely to generate in the future — will eventually bring on pumpkins and mice. But they nevertheless hate to miss a single minute of what is one helluva party. Therefore, the giddy participants all plan to leave just seconds before midnight. There’s a problem, though: They are dancing in a room in which the clocks have no hands.
35. The only time to buy these is on a day with no “y” in it.
36. The smarter the journalists are, the better off society is. For to a degree, people read the press to inform themselves-and the better the teacher, the better the student body.
37. There are all kinds of businesses that Charlie and I don’t understand, but that doesn’t cause us to stay up at night. It just means we go on to the next one, and that’s what the individual investor should do.
38. There seems to be some perverse human characteristic that likes to make easy things difficult.
39. Time is the friend of the wonderful company, the enemy of the mediocre.
40. Value is what you get.
41. We believe that according the name ‘investors’ to institutions that trade actively is like calling someone who repeatedly engages in one-night stands a ‘romantic.’
42. We don’t get paid for activity, just for being right. As to how long we’ll wait, we’ll wait indefinitely.
43. We enjoy the process far more than the proceeds.
44. We simply attempt to be fearful when others are greedy and to be greedy only when others are fearful.
45. We’ve long felt that the only value of stock forecasters is to make fortune tellers look good. Even now, Charlie and I continue to believe that short-term market forecasts are poison and should be kept locked up in a safe place, away from children and also from grown-ups who behave in the market like children.
46. When a management team with a reputation for brilliance tackles a business with a reputation for bad economics, it is the reputation of the business that remains intact.
47. Should you find yourself in a chronically leaking boat, energy devoted to changing vessels is likely to be more productive than energy devoted to patching leaks.
48. Why not invest your assets in the companies you really like? As Mae West said, “Too much of a good thing can be wonderful”.
49. Wide diversification is only required when investors do not understand what they are doing.
50. You do things when the opportunities come along. I’ve had periods in my life when I’ve had a bundle of ideas come along, and I’ve had long dry spells. If I get an idea next week, I’ll do something. If not, I won’t do a damn thing.
51. You only have to do a very few things right in your life so long as you don’t do too many things wrong.
52. Your premium brand had better be delivering something special, or it’s not going to get the business.
1. A public-opinion poll is no substitute for thought.
2. Chains of habit are too light to be felt until they are too heavy to be broken.
3. I always knew I was going to be rich. I don’t think I ever doubted it for a minute.
4. I am quite serious when I say that I do not believe there are, on the whole earth besides, so many intensified bores as in these United States. No man can form an adequate idea of the real meaning of the word, without coming here.
5. I buy expensive suits. They just look cheap on me.
6. I don’t have a problem with guilt about money. The way I see it is that my money represents an enormous number of claim checks on society. It’s like I have these little pieces of paper that I can turn into consumption. If I wanted to, I could hire 10,000 people to do nothing but paint my picture every day for the rest of my life. And the GNP would go up. But the utility of the product would be zilch, and I would be keeping those 10,000 people from doing AIDS research, or teaching, or nursing. I don’t do that though. I don’t use very many of those claim checks. There’s nothing material I want very much. And I’m going to give virtually all of those claim checks to charity when my wife and I die.
7. I don’t look to jump over 7-foot bars: I look around for 1-foot bars that I can step over.
8. I never attempt to make money on the stock market. I buy on the assumption that they could close the market the next day and not reopen it for five years.
9. If a business does well, the stock eventually follows.
10. If past history was all there was to the game, the richest people would be librarians.
11. If you’re in the luckiest 1 per cent of humanity, you owe it to the rest of humanity to think about the other 99 per cent.
12. In the business world, the rear view mirror is always clearer than the windshield.
13. Investors making purchases in an overheated market need to recognize that it may often take an extended period for the value of even an outstanding company to catch up with the price they paid.
14. It takes 20 years to build a reputation and five minutes to ruin it. If you think about that, you’ll do things differently.
15. It’s better to hang out with people better than you. Pick out associates whose behavior is better than yours and you’ll drift in that direction.
16. It’s far better to buy a wonderful company at a fair price than a fair company at a wonderful price.
17. I’ve reluctantly discarded the notion of my continuing to manage the portfolio after my death – abandoning my hope to give new meaning to the term ‘thinking outside the box.’
18. Let blockheads read what blockheads wrote.
19. Look at market fluctuations as your friend rather than your enemy; profit from folly rather than participate in it.
20. Long ago, Sir Isaac Newton gave us three laws of motion, which were the work of genius. But Sir Isaac’s talents didn’t extend to investing: He lost a bundle in the South Sea Bubble, explaining later, ‘I can calculate the movement of the stars, but not the madness of men.’ If he had not been traumatized by this loss, Sir Isaac might well have gone on to discover the Fourth Law of Motion: For investors as a whole, returns decrease as motion increases.
21. Most people get interested in stocks when everyone else is. The time to get interested is when no one else is. You can’t buy what is popular and do well.
22. Never count on making a good sale. Have the purchase price be so attractive that even a mediocre sale gives good results.
23. Of the billionaires I have known, money just brings out the basic traits in them. If they were jerks before they had money, they are simply jerks with a billion dollars.
24. Only buy something that you’d be perfectly happy to hold if the market shut down for 10 years.
25. Only when the tide goes out do you discover who’s been swimming naked.
26. Our favorite holding period is forever.
27. Price is what you pay. Value is what you get.
28. Risk comes from not knowing what you’re doing.
29. Risk is a part of God’s game, alike for men and nations.
30. Rule No.1: Never lose money. Rule No.2: Never forget rule No.1.
31. Wall Street is the only place that people ride to work in a Rolls Royce to get advice from those who take the subway.
32. The business schools reward difficult complex behavior more than simple behavior, but simple behavior is more effective.
33. The investor of today does not profit from yesterday’s growth.
34. The line separating investment and speculation, which is never bright and clear, becomes blurred still further when most market participants have recently enjoyed triumphs. Nothing sedates rationality like large doses of effortless money. After a heady experience of that kind, normally sensible people drift into behavior akin to that of Cinderella at the ball. They know that overstaying the festivities — that is, continuing to speculate in companies that have gigantic valuations relative to the cash they are likely to generate in the future — will eventually bring on pumpkins and mice. But they nevertheless hate to miss a single minute of what is one helluva party. Therefore, the giddy participants all plan to leave just seconds before midnight. There’s a problem, though: They are dancing in a room in which the clocks have no hands.
35. The only time to buy these is on a day with no “y” in it.
36. The smarter the journalists are, the better off society is. For to a degree, people read the press to inform themselves-and the better the teacher, the better the student body.
37. There are all kinds of businesses that Charlie and I don’t understand, but that doesn’t cause us to stay up at night. It just means we go on to the next one, and that’s what the individual investor should do.
38. There seems to be some perverse human characteristic that likes to make easy things difficult.
39. Time is the friend of the wonderful company, the enemy of the mediocre.
40. Value is what you get.
41. We believe that according the name ‘investors’ to institutions that trade actively is like calling someone who repeatedly engages in one-night stands a ‘romantic.’
42. We don’t get paid for activity, just for being right. As to how long we’ll wait, we’ll wait indefinitely.
43. We enjoy the process far more than the proceeds.
44. We simply attempt to be fearful when others are greedy and to be greedy only when others are fearful.
45. We’ve long felt that the only value of stock forecasters is to make fortune tellers look good. Even now, Charlie and I continue to believe that short-term market forecasts are poison and should be kept locked up in a safe place, away from children and also from grown-ups who behave in the market like children.
46. When a management team with a reputation for brilliance tackles a business with a reputation for bad economics, it is the reputation of the business that remains intact.
47. Should you find yourself in a chronically leaking boat, energy devoted to changing vessels is likely to be more productive than energy devoted to patching leaks.
48. Why not invest your assets in the companies you really like? As Mae West said, “Too much of a good thing can be wonderful”.
49. Wide diversification is only required when investors do not understand what they are doing.
50. You do things when the opportunities come along. I’ve had periods in my life when I’ve had a bundle of ideas come along, and I’ve had long dry spells. If I get an idea next week, I’ll do something. If not, I won’t do a damn thing.
51. You only have to do a very few things right in your life so long as you don’t do too many things wrong.
52. Your premium brand had better be delivering something special, or it’s not going to get the business.
Monday, February 7, 2011
Pleasurable activity reduces stress
Be it food or sex, pleasurable activity actually reduces stress by inhibiting anxiety responses in the brain.
Experiments by Yvonne Ulrich-Lai, research assistant professor, James Herman, professor of psychiatry at the University of Cincinnati, and colleagues indicated that the reduced-stress effects continued for at least seven days.
"These findings give us a clearer understanding of the motivation for consuming 'comfort food' during times of stress," says Ulrich-Lai, according to the journal PNAS.
"But it's important to note that, based on our findings, even small amounts of pleasurable foods can reduce the effects of stress," Ulrich-Lai adds.
The researchers provided rats twice daily access to a sugar solution for two weeks, then tested their physiological and behavioural responses to stress, according to a University of Cincinnati statement.
Compared with controls, rats with access to sugar exhibited reduced heart rate and stress hormone levels even in restrained surroundings and were more willing to explore an unfamiliar environment and mingle with other rats.
Rats who were fed a solution artificially sweetened with saccharin (instead of being fed sucrose) showed similar reductions in stress responses, as did rats who were given access to sexually responsive partners.
But sucrose supplied directly to the stomach did not blunt the rats' stress response, the researchers say.
"This indicates that the pleasurable properties of tasty foods, not the caloric properties, were sufficient for stress reduction," says Ulrich-Lai.
Experiments by Yvonne Ulrich-Lai, research assistant professor, James Herman, professor of psychiatry at the University of Cincinnati, and colleagues indicated that the reduced-stress effects continued for at least seven days.
"These findings give us a clearer understanding of the motivation for consuming 'comfort food' during times of stress," says Ulrich-Lai, according to the journal PNAS.
"But it's important to note that, based on our findings, even small amounts of pleasurable foods can reduce the effects of stress," Ulrich-Lai adds.
The researchers provided rats twice daily access to a sugar solution for two weeks, then tested their physiological and behavioural responses to stress, according to a University of Cincinnati statement.
Compared with controls, rats with access to sugar exhibited reduced heart rate and stress hormone levels even in restrained surroundings and were more willing to explore an unfamiliar environment and mingle with other rats.
Rats who were fed a solution artificially sweetened with saccharin (instead of being fed sucrose) showed similar reductions in stress responses, as did rats who were given access to sexually responsive partners.
But sucrose supplied directly to the stomach did not blunt the rats' stress response, the researchers say.
"This indicates that the pleasurable properties of tasty foods, not the caloric properties, were sufficient for stress reduction," says Ulrich-Lai.
Sunday, January 30, 2011
Investors lose Rs 11 trillion in stock market
Investors have lost a whopping amount of nearly Rs 11,00,000 crore in the stock market in less than three months since Diwali last year, with over Rs 3 lakh crore being wiped out in the past three days alone.
The stock market today plunged to its lowest level in nearly five months after three consecutive days of fall -- a period during which the benchmark Sensex plummetted by about 755 points, including a 288-point dip witnessed today.
Total investor wealth, measured in terms of cumulative market value of all listed stocks, today itself fell by over Rs 1,32,000 crore -- taking the loss for past three days to over Rs 3,00,000 crore amid macro-economic concerns emanating from inflationary and governance deficit related factors.
Experts said that downward pressures in the market extended well beyond the past three days and heavy selling pressure has continued for over two months now, primarily due to heavy outflows by overseas and domestic investors keeping away in the absence of any positive triggers.
In the process, the total investor wealth has fallen to near Rs 66,00,900 crore -- a huge dip of close to Rs 11,00,000 crore since last Diwali on November 5, 2010, the day when the Sensex scaled its record closing level of 21,004.96 points.
The Sensex has now fallen to 18,395.97 points -- marking a plunge of over 2,600 points since Diwali.
So far in 2011, the investor wealth has fallen by nearly Rs 9,00,000 crore, while nearly Rs 2,00,000 crore was lost during the last two months of 2010.
Experts said that a huge dip in investor confidence is also corroborated by a considerable plunge in the trading turnover at the bourses.
The average daily cash market turnover at the bourses have fallen to nearly Rs 15,000 crore, marking a decline of over one-third from approximately Rs 23,000 crore in October-November 2010.
The current level of turnover is not even one-third of the record level of business volume witnessed in mid-2009, when the daily average turnover was close to Rs 50,000 crore.
The intensity of current downward rally on the bourses can be gauged from the fact that only four stocks out of the 50 top blue-chips that make the Nifty index have given a positive return in the past one month. Even the gains of these four stocks -- namely HCL Tech, TCS, Sesa Goa and PowerGrid -- are only nominal between 0.6-7.3 per cent.
The stock market today plunged to its lowest level in nearly five months after three consecutive days of fall -- a period during which the benchmark Sensex plummetted by about 755 points, including a 288-point dip witnessed today.
Total investor wealth, measured in terms of cumulative market value of all listed stocks, today itself fell by over Rs 1,32,000 crore -- taking the loss for past three days to over Rs 3,00,000 crore amid macro-economic concerns emanating from inflationary and governance deficit related factors.
Experts said that downward pressures in the market extended well beyond the past three days and heavy selling pressure has continued for over two months now, primarily due to heavy outflows by overseas and domestic investors keeping away in the absence of any positive triggers.
In the process, the total investor wealth has fallen to near Rs 66,00,900 crore -- a huge dip of close to Rs 11,00,000 crore since last Diwali on November 5, 2010, the day when the Sensex scaled its record closing level of 21,004.96 points.
The Sensex has now fallen to 18,395.97 points -- marking a plunge of over 2,600 points since Diwali.
So far in 2011, the investor wealth has fallen by nearly Rs 9,00,000 crore, while nearly Rs 2,00,000 crore was lost during the last two months of 2010.
Experts said that a huge dip in investor confidence is also corroborated by a considerable plunge in the trading turnover at the bourses.
The average daily cash market turnover at the bourses have fallen to nearly Rs 15,000 crore, marking a decline of over one-third from approximately Rs 23,000 crore in October-November 2010.
The current level of turnover is not even one-third of the record level of business volume witnessed in mid-2009, when the daily average turnover was close to Rs 50,000 crore.
The intensity of current downward rally on the bourses can be gauged from the fact that only four stocks out of the 50 top blue-chips that make the Nifty index have given a positive return in the past one month. Even the gains of these four stocks -- namely HCL Tech, TCS, Sesa Goa and PowerGrid -- are only nominal between 0.6-7.3 per cent.
Thursday, January 20, 2011
Mobile number portability launch today
Today's the day all those frustrated with their mobile phone networks have been waiting for. They can dump their operator for a better one just for Rs 19. And yes, it's for both post-paid and pre-paid customers.
As Mobile Number Portability takes off across the country today, all you need to do is switch operators if the one you have isn't meeting your needs and standards. Of course, you can only do it within the current service area. So it doesn't really help people who are moving cities. You can't retain the number you had in Mumbai if you shift base to Delhi. But that apart, this service is sure to soothe a few frazzled nerves and help you block a lot of unwanted service calls off.
Though studies reveal that MNP will make a negligible difference to subscriber base of operators and therefore to service as a whole, it'll be worth tracking the customer enthusiasm and reaction to the much-hyped service that's finally being launched, three years late.
Today's the day all those frustrated with their mobile phone networks have been waiting for. They can dump their operator for a better one just for Rs 19. And yes, it's for both post-paid and pre-paid customers.
As Mobile Number Portability takes off across the country today, all you need to do is switch operators if the one you have isn't meeting your needs and standards. Of course, you can only do it within the current service area. So it doesn't really help people who are moving cities. You can't retain the number you had in Mumbai if you shift base to Delhi. But that apart, this service is sure to soothe a few frazzled nerves and help you block a lot of unwanted service calls off.
Though studies reveal that MNP will make a negligible difference to subscriber base of operators and therefore to service as a whole, it'll be worth tracking the customer enthusiasm and reaction to the much-hyped service that's finally being launched, three years late.
Also, analysts believe that number portability might spur a price war again and the profitability of Indian cellular service providers is likely to be squeezed.
Amit K Khire of Ambit Capital, told DNA newspaper, "We expect MNP to increase the cost structure of all the players as they will need to spend more on improving their quality of service and customer care,"
However telcos believe that users will now look for quality providers.
"Post-paid users generally have a higher standard of service and broader requirements. The operators will offer them bundles of sops and services. This might also happen for that class of prepaid subscriber that mimics the postpaid subscriber," said Rajan Mathews, director general of lobby group, the Cellular Operators Association of India or COAI in Live Mint.
As Mobile Number Portability takes off across the country today, all you need to do is switch operators if the one you have isn't meeting your needs and standards. Of course, you can only do it within the current service area. So it doesn't really help people who are moving cities. You can't retain the number you had in Mumbai if you shift base to Delhi. But that apart, this service is sure to soothe a few frazzled nerves and help you block a lot of unwanted service calls off.
Though studies reveal that MNP will make a negligible difference to subscriber base of operators and therefore to service as a whole, it'll be worth tracking the customer enthusiasm and reaction to the much-hyped service that's finally being launched, three years late.
Today's the day all those frustrated with their mobile phone networks have been waiting for. They can dump their operator for a better one just for Rs 19. And yes, it's for both post-paid and pre-paid customers.
As Mobile Number Portability takes off across the country today, all you need to do is switch operators if the one you have isn't meeting your needs and standards. Of course, you can only do it within the current service area. So it doesn't really help people who are moving cities. You can't retain the number you had in Mumbai if you shift base to Delhi. But that apart, this service is sure to soothe a few frazzled nerves and help you block a lot of unwanted service calls off.
Though studies reveal that MNP will make a negligible difference to subscriber base of operators and therefore to service as a whole, it'll be worth tracking the customer enthusiasm and reaction to the much-hyped service that's finally being launched, three years late.
Also, analysts believe that number portability might spur a price war again and the profitability of Indian cellular service providers is likely to be squeezed.
Amit K Khire of Ambit Capital, told DNA newspaper, "We expect MNP to increase the cost structure of all the players as they will need to spend more on improving their quality of service and customer care,"
However telcos believe that users will now look for quality providers.
"Post-paid users generally have a higher standard of service and broader requirements. The operators will offer them bundles of sops and services. This might also happen for that class of prepaid subscriber that mimics the postpaid subscriber," said Rajan Mathews, director general of lobby group, the Cellular Operators Association of India or COAI in Live Mint.
Friday, January 14, 2011
IIMs raise the cutoff bar, entry becomes tougher
Getting into IIMs is never easy.
When the Indian Institutes of Management announced the cut-off percentiles for the admission process on Wednesday, a few of the IIMs had raised their cutoffs.
Like IIM Ranchi, which had the highest cut-off of 99.65 percentile among all IIMs last year, has further raised it to 99.66 for the 2011-13 batch. At IIM-Calcutta, Ranchi's mentoring institute, the cutoff is 99.59. IIM Ahmedabad announced that 540 students whose overall percentile is 99 and of each section were 94 would be called for the personal interview. IIM Lucknow, which is one of the CAT 2010 organising institutes, has increased the weightage to CAT scores.
What was 30% for the CAT scores has gone up to 37.5% for the next batch. The fees, too, have been raised from Rs 8 lakh to 12 lakh. IIM Kozhikode has also decided to give 50% weightage to CAT score, 15% to GD and social skills, personal interview 25% and writing task 10%.
Interestingly, many IIMs are set to take in more women and non-engineering students to increase the diversity in the institute. IIM-L has decided to give 2.5 more points for these candidates. The directors of newer IIMs will meet next week to decide on holding joint PIs and GDs.
The scores for the Common Admission Test (CAT) 2010 were released on Wednesday. There are eight candidates who scored 100 percentile and 19 with 99.99 percentile. Of the latter group, two are women — one from Kerala and the other from Andhra Pradesh. And all of them are engineers.
While many students found it difficult to access results online, the IIMs said that the website did not crash. "The highlight of the day was that the website did not crash despite around two lakh students checking the result on the web. The fact that it was slow was something that was impossible to help," said Himanshu Rai, convener, CAT. However, the rumours that the CAT results had leaked in the first week of January turned out to be true.
When the Indian Institutes of Management announced the cut-off percentiles for the admission process on Wednesday, a few of the IIMs had raised their cutoffs.
Like IIM Ranchi, which had the highest cut-off of 99.65 percentile among all IIMs last year, has further raised it to 99.66 for the 2011-13 batch. At IIM-Calcutta, Ranchi's mentoring institute, the cutoff is 99.59. IIM Ahmedabad announced that 540 students whose overall percentile is 99 and of each section were 94 would be called for the personal interview. IIM Lucknow, which is one of the CAT 2010 organising institutes, has increased the weightage to CAT scores.
What was 30% for the CAT scores has gone up to 37.5% for the next batch. The fees, too, have been raised from Rs 8 lakh to 12 lakh. IIM Kozhikode has also decided to give 50% weightage to CAT score, 15% to GD and social skills, personal interview 25% and writing task 10%.
Interestingly, many IIMs are set to take in more women and non-engineering students to increase the diversity in the institute. IIM-L has decided to give 2.5 more points for these candidates. The directors of newer IIMs will meet next week to decide on holding joint PIs and GDs.
The scores for the Common Admission Test (CAT) 2010 were released on Wednesday. There are eight candidates who scored 100 percentile and 19 with 99.99 percentile. Of the latter group, two are women — one from Kerala and the other from Andhra Pradesh. And all of them are engineers.
While many students found it difficult to access results online, the IIMs said that the website did not crash. "The highlight of the day was that the website did not crash despite around two lakh students checking the result on the web. The fact that it was slow was something that was impossible to help," said Himanshu Rai, convener, CAT. However, the rumours that the CAT results had leaked in the first week of January turned out to be true.
Thursday, January 13, 2011
Gold prices to shoot up 19% in 2011
Guys, some HOT News on Gold Market..
Although gold prices fell on Friday, leading towards the biggest weekly loss since July last year, partly due to the recovering US economy and its slipping demand, however, the commodity prices in 2011 are expected to be 19 per cent higher than last year.
According to experts, surveyed by the London Bullion Metals Association (LBMA), the average gold price forecast was USD 1,457 per ounce.
Analysts surveyed by the group predicted that silver prices will average USD 29.88 per ounce, which would represent a 48 per cent increase on the average price in 2010.
The average platinum price in 2011 was forecast to rise 12.6 per cent from the average 2010 price, to USD 1,813 per ounce.
"And palladium shows no sign of slowing down with an average 2011 price prediction of USD 814,65, a 54.8 per cent increase on last year's bumper average price," the LBMA noted in a press release.
Looking back at last year's survey, the average gold price prediction of USD 1,199 per ounce, which was 23.4 per cent higher than the 2009 price, was just USD 26 lower than the actual average price of USD 1,225 per ounce.
"All metals rose as predicted, although silver and palladium exceeded almost everyone's expectations," the group said.
Although gold prices fell on Friday, leading towards the biggest weekly loss since July last year, partly due to the recovering US economy and its slipping demand, however, the commodity prices in 2011 are expected to be 19 per cent higher than last year.
According to experts, surveyed by the London Bullion Metals Association (LBMA), the average gold price forecast was USD 1,457 per ounce.
Analysts surveyed by the group predicted that silver prices will average USD 29.88 per ounce, which would represent a 48 per cent increase on the average price in 2010.
The average platinum price in 2011 was forecast to rise 12.6 per cent from the average 2010 price, to USD 1,813 per ounce.
"And palladium shows no sign of slowing down with an average 2011 price prediction of USD 814,65, a 54.8 per cent increase on last year's bumper average price," the LBMA noted in a press release.
Looking back at last year's survey, the average gold price prediction of USD 1,199 per ounce, which was 23.4 per cent higher than the 2009 price, was just USD 26 lower than the actual average price of USD 1,225 per ounce.
"All metals rose as predicted, although silver and palladium exceeded almost everyone's expectations," the group said.
Wednesday, January 5, 2011
Bekhal
Bekal Fort is the largest fort in the state of Kerala, India, spreading over 40 acres (160,000 m2). An important features of this fort are the water-tank with its flight of steps, the tunnel opening towards the south, the magazine for keeping ammunition and the broad and wide steps leading to the Observation Tower which is a rarity. From there one has ample view of towns in the vicinity like Kanhangad, Pallikare, Bekal, Kottikkulam, Uduma etc. This observation center had strategic significance in discovering even the smallest movements of the enemy and ascertaining safety of the Fort.
The Fort appears to have been built up from the sea since almost three fourth of its exteriors is drenched and the waves continually stroke the citadel. The Mukhyaprana Temple of Hanuman and the ancient Muslim Mosque nearby bear testimony to the age-old religious harmony that prevailed in the area. The zigzag entrance and the trenches around the fort show the defense strategy inherent in the fort.
Unlike most other Indian Forts, Bekal fort was not a center of administration for no remains of any palace, mansion or such buildings are found within the fort. Arguably the fort was built exclusively for fulfilling defense requirements. The holes on the outer walls of the fort are specially designed to defend the fort effectively. The holes at top were meant for aiming at the farthest points; the holes below for striking when the enemy was nearer and the holes underneath facilitated attacking when the enemy was very near to the fort. This is a remarkable evidence of technology in defense strategy.
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Guys, some HOT News on Gold Market.. Although gold prices fell on Friday, leading towards the biggest weekly loss since July last year, part...
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Today's the day all those frustrated with their mobile phone networks have been waiting for. They can dump their operator for a better o...
